Their presskit listed the following benefits about the Table:
“The Table is a unique food pantry in many important ways.
• Those who come to The Table choose their own food items, thereby “shopping” in a market-style setting.
• A selection of fresh produce is available each week. During the summer, there is an abundant variety of fruits and vegetables.
• The Table encourages shoppers to come weekly in order to replenish perishable produce and protein items.
• Many of those who shop also volunteer, and several have stepped up to assume leadership roles at The Table.
• The Table partners with local agencies to make valuable nutritional and food preparation information available to shoppers.”
1. Numbers
In 2014 Table served 22,243 household members (15,151 non-duplicated numbers).
Here is the comparison with previous years and shows a significant increase with a full year of both the morning and evening markets
| Year | Adults | Children | Total | Growth |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | 605 | 575 | 1,180 | |
| 2009 | 1,321 | 943 | 2,264 | 192% |
| 2010 | 1,517 | 1,304 | 2,821 | 125% |
| 2011 | 2,558 | 1,772 | 4,330 | 153% |
| 2012 | 5,025 | 2,862 | 7,887 | 182% |
| 2013 | 5,543 | 3,173 | 8,716 | 111% |
| 2014 | 7,708 | 7,443 | 15,151 | 189% |
The Table distributed more than 180,500 pounds of food.
Of the above, a total of 86,695 pounds was fresh produce, provided by the Fredericksburg Area Food Bank or purchased from a local farmer or grocer.
The Sunday afternoon produce delivery team meeting our farmers in Westmoreland County each week is a hardworking crew of five to seven working two hours each week. The morning Table volunteers number 35 or so and the evening Table another 25.
Here is the comparison with previous years:
| Year | Pounds | Pounds Growth |
|---|---|---|
| 2012 | 134,768 | |
| 2013 | 151,066 | 112% |
| 2014 | 180,500 | 119% |
2. Funding
They received grants over $50,000 which would support the Table for over 1 year
- $25,000 from the Honeywell Foundation from the Community Foundation of the Rappahannock. $25,000 was received July, 2014 and another $14,722 in December from a restricted account. The $25,000 grant was given to enable The Table to increase our cooled storage and to purchase food and supplies for the community.
- $10,000 Gimbel Grant
- $2,000 Robert C. O’Neill Grant
- $2,000 David Morgan Fund
The S. L. Gimbel Foundation Advised Fund at The Community Foundation Serving the Counties of Riverside and San Bernardino awarded this grant to The Table for the purchase and transport of food.
The Robert Cullen O’Neill Memorial Fund granted St. George’s these funds in the summer of 2014 to enable us to increase our ability to hold fresh food. The freezer purchased with the funds allowed the Table to store food gleaned from our urban gleaning operation. Urban gleaning is the term we have given to our collection of donated excess food from local businesses.
3. Third parties
- They established a relationship with a local grocery store allowing us to buy at wholesale prices fresh fruit and vegetables to supplement that which we receive from the Rappahannock Area Food Bank solving a problem of having enough fresh food to share during the winter months.
- For the Table they did Urban Gleaning at Panera, Jimmy John’s Gourmet Sandwiches, WaWa, Starbucks, Perkins Bakery and Restaurant
4. New programs
- Cold storage of fresh produce quickly became a challenge as the large amount of perishables gleaned and purchased by the food pantry exceeded storage space at St. George’s. In 2014, The Table was fortunate to receive a grant, providing funds for the building of a cooling shed. This shed, completed in spring 2015, greatly expanded the food pantry’s ability to store produce and keep it fresh for distribution each week.
- This spring they initiated a pilot project Farm-to-Pantry-to-Market program- the goal is to teach clients how to use the food stamps they receive and to teach them about matching funds which are available to them.The contract was made to William Brooks, consultant to help design the program from April through September, 2014. His contract specified the following activities:
- “Assessing the Table clients’ use of the SNAP benefits at local farmers markets before educational experience
- Establishing a small educational farmers market at the Church
- Teaching and encouraging the use of local farmers markets and the use of SNAP benefits at the markets from June to September 2014
- Assessing the Table client’s openness to using SNAP benefits at local farmers markets after the educational experience
- Develop a task plan for the Farm-to-Pantry-to-Market pilot
- Attend planning and execution meetings with the Table leadership and staff
- Provide expertise on farmers market operations and SNAP benefit usage
- Develop an operations model for the educational farmers market in alignment with the Table’s principle of empowering clients
- Prepare a Market Day Operations Handbook for the educational farmers market
- Train the Table staff and volunteers in the operation of the educational farmers market
- Assist in managing the operations of the educational farmers market
- Develop a handbook and training for Market Ambassadors to use in guiding the Table clients on tours of the Fredericksburg Farmers Market”
- Summer breakfast program for school children. The Honeywell Grant review in 2014 described the program. “All children under age eighteen, coming to The Table with adults who are shopping, are offered an opportunity to take a bagged breakfast. This is in response to the information that 60% of the school children in our City schools qualify for free and reduced fee lunches. Further, the 2014 Point In Time Homelessness Count shows 92 children in the homeless population in our City. We know many of the families are coming to the Table for groceries, so offering breakfast is a great way to improve the health of the children. Interestingly, we have found that we have more children at the evening market, the market that the Honeywell grant funded. We distribute more breakfast bags in the evening to children for eating the next day.”
The Consultant provided the following services:
Financials results – Cash in /out. Results were closely balanced:
| Funds in | |
|---|---|
| Gimbel Grant | $10,000 |
| O'Neill Grant | $2,000 |
| Honeywell Grant | $39,722 |
| Table Restricted | $17,573 |
| Budget acct | $3,637 |
| Total | $72,931 |
| Fund Out | |
| Gimbel Grant | $10,000 |
| Community Foundation | $19,911 |
| O'Neill Grant | $1,683 |
| Honeywell Grant | $14,722 |
| Table Restricted | $17,573 |
| Budget acct | $8,637 |
| Total | $72,525 |
| Surplus | $406 |